Shoppers using Apple’s Safari browser on their Macs and mobile devices will be able to use Apple Pay when the newest version of the Apple iOS operating system is officially released this fall. Specifically, the company wrote in its announcement:
“Apple Pay can now be used to make easy, secure and private purchases on participating websites using Safari, in addition to paying in-stores and within apps.”
This is good news for online sellers who wish to add Apple Pay, since anything that makes it easier for shoppers to pay for items on their websites is a good thing.
There is one disappointing bit of news, however: the new iOS 10 won’t be available for iPhone 4 devices. According to the announcement:
“iOS 10 will be available this fall as a free software update for iPhone 5 and later, all iPad Air and iPad Pro models, iPad 4th generation, iPad mini 2 and later, and iPod touch 6th generation.”
Some saw the news as bad for PayPal – “the move online is a blow to companies like PayPal,” wrote Internet Retailer, though others said the impact would not be great, such as the analyst quoted by Ars Technica.
The tech publication also noted, “despite rumors to the contrary, Apple did not release a peer-to-peer payments service through Apple Pay,” which is good news for PayPal.
PayPal provided EcommerceBytes with the following statement in reaction to the Apple Pay announcement:
As the world’s leading open digital payments platform, we welcome any developments that help people move away from the awkwardness of cash.
PayPal is much more than a way to checkout online or digitally pay back your friends. In more than 200 markets around the world, we help both sides of the network, merchants and consumers, connect with each other whether on a PayPal branded experience (PayPal, Venmo, Xoom) or behind the scenes (Braintree, Paydiant).
We currently work with Apple to help people make purchases on Apple.com and iTunes, provide credit services and allow merchants to accept Apple Pay transactions via Braintree. Our device-agnostic and operating system-agnostic platform is robust and agile, and combines with risk and data analytics capabilities that can deliver truly differentiated offerings such as PayPal Credit, One Touch and Contextual Commerce.
PayPal is committed to our vision of reimagining money and have deep and long running partnerships with many players in the ecosystem, including Apple.
You can read more about the new iOS 10 operating system on the Apple website.
